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Cast Interviews
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| Interview with:
Jim Helsinger |
Interviewer: Vladimir Legkostup |
| Subject: General |
Date: 02/04/2001 |
Vladimir Legkostup: At what age did you find out your actor gift and how hard was your way to the stage?
Jim Helsinger: I first got the bug in 8th grade. A brand new kid in school suddenly became extremely popular, particularly with the girls, when he got the lead in the
musical Oliver!. And I thought, "hey, maybe I should check this out..." I auditioned for our local community theater production of "Carousel" that summer and played in the chorus. So, yes, I got into theater for the chicks.
VL: On the stage you live the lives of different people, do their characters influence your personality? Aren't you afraid "to loose yourself"?
JH: No. People often ask that question and the line is very clear. Learning more about yourself through your characters is always an edifying journey, but no, I always know who I am and I do not confuse myself with the characters I play.... Actually, that 's not entirely rue, now that I think about it. Immediately after finishing a scene, in the moments just after, I am sometimes very vulnerable to my emotions and those of the character, for a few minutes only. That can be roblematic when a director or other person gives you negative criticism moments after you have been through something
very emotional. You want to strike out, to respond with you emotions, instead of your "business" self. But you deal with it. It's just part of the job.
VL: Judging from the impressive list of your theatre works and your beign Art Director of Shakespeare Festival, its apparent that you are fond of Shakespeare's writing. No doubt, all the actors dream of the part of Hamlet. But what's the reason of your peculiar fondness of the classic playwrite's works?
JH: Many actors, but certainly not all, dream of playing Hamlet and I have been lucky enough to play the role twice, but that's not the driving force behind wanting to perform Shakespeare. I am fascinated, as an artist, by three driving forces: the power of language, and the power of the imagination, and direct connection with the audience. Shakespeare involves all three. The man had a vocabulary of 39,000 words. The King James Version of the Bible has only 12,000. That is just stunning to me, his use of language is just amazing.
VL: What role do you dream about most of all?
JH: Right now, I am really itching to play Iago in Othello.
VL: How did you happen to get to the shooting of MK CONQUEST?
JH: An audition and callback through my agent here in Orlando.
VL: Were you acquainted to Mortal Kombat World before you got the role of general Reiko?
JH: Not too much. I knew and played the video games series some (although I was a bit more of a Tekken fan, because of the 3D effect) and I knew Christopher Lambert was in the first movie (I am a big Highlander fan). When the
audition came up though, I watched all the movies, looked stuff up on the web, played Reiko on the video game, surfed the net, and watched the series on TV. I thought it was very well done. It was so exciting to play a
character on a video game. I was so thrilled to get the part! The research payed off very well too! I downloaded a few color pics from Reiko from the web and brought them the first day of our shoot. Oddly enough, the makeup people did not know what Reiko looked and so they used my pics to do the facepaint makeup, otherwise, I don't know what he might have ended up looking like! They didn't do the arm tattoo, which I would have loved, ah well. You can't have it all.
VL: Have you been fond of such kind of sport like Martial Arts?
JH: I enjoy martial arts, although I have no training in them, except for T'ai Chi, which is non-combative. As an actor, I have extensive training in unarmed combat, kicks, rolls, punches, falls and many weapons, foil, epee, rapier and dagger, broadsword, quarterstaff and others.
VL: What kind of relations do you have with partners of MKConquest?
JH: I don't have contact with any of the actors. I just saw a lot of the crew this week, though. Many of them moved from Mortal Kombat to Sheena. I just filmed an episode this week and met many of the makeup, props, assistants and others that worked on MK too. I played an international terrorist called Omar Bendix. Sheena kills me at the end of the episode. It's called "The Maltaka Files," but I don't know when it will air.
VL: Would you like to take a part in mk-films once again?
JH: Sure. I hope it comes back some day.
VL: Was the role of general Reiko to easy for you, or were there any difficulties with such character?
JH: I enjoyed it alot. The scene where Shao Kahn is listening to what I say through the sword was probably the most challenging. They had to do a close up and bring the camera just a few inches from my mouth when they zoom in
and that made me self conscious. Jeff, who plays Shao Kahn, is a great actor and very nice. He made it easy to do.
VL: Art Director in Shakespeare Festival, what special in these words, I mean what do they mean?
JH: I make all the artistic decisions for the theater: which plays we will do, and who we will hire; actors, directors, designers, etc. I also create five year plans for our growth and see that they are carried out. We are
currently doing a $3 million dollar renovation of our space and opening and new 300 seat theater.
VL: You said that you used the internet materials for Reiko's character. How often do you use internet?
JH: All the time. Tonight, I am logging on to carmax.com to buy a new mustang.
VL: What actor system did you learn?
JH: My undergrad work was very Stanislavski based, with Linklater voice work. My grad work was all classical with an emphasis on Edith Skinner speech and phonetics, textual analysis, scansion, and work on 16th century playwrights.
Since then the most profound influence in my work has come from a number of exercise's refined at Shakespeare and Company in Lennox, MA and work we have created here at the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival.
VL: What can you advise to a beginner actor?
JH: Acting is a business and requires marketing and research, daily phone calls, physical workouts, practice, and smart business choices. If you do not handle constant rejection well, this is probably not the career for you.
VL: A man is eternal in his affairs, but do you believe in real immortality of human's soul?
JH: I believe that the energy which is the soul is indestructible and leaves the body at death. I believe it joins the collective soul energy which we call God. I believe man's immortality lies directly in the genes and behavior we pass on to our children.
VL: Please tell about your family.
JH: I am married and have a young child. I have a very happy family l life that. I prefer to remain personal and private.
VL: What natural element are you accociated with yourself: fire, water, wind or earth?
JH: I relate to them all in different ways.
VL: You are the author of "Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker" and "Frankenstein". Do you like tales from the dark side?
JH: yes. absolutely. I love gothic thrillers. Discovering the line between good and evil fascinates me.
VL: Your opinion about theatre's future. Do people need a living word or will Hamlet be staged by one machine for others in future?
JH: The spoken word will always be important. It will always remain the most vital form of communication we have, the deepest and most informative, however, live theatre may become so expensive to produce without government funding and support, that only the elite will be able to afford it. I find that very sad.
VL: What do you think about MKWarriors.net?
JH: Just looked at it. Very well set up. I was impressed. |
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